I am so sorry for the slow updates but my schedule is packed right now.
I meant to update last weekend, but I got the stomach flu for the first time in 10 years! Can you believe it? 10 freaking years! Talk about a record breaker. Then this weekend was semi. Then I tried to upload this chapter and it said something about a processing error, so sorry!!!
Shine On
BPOV
I woke up the next morning feeling well rested. I still wasn't quite ready to tell the Masens about my past, or speak aloud to them at all really, but I was on the right track.
I walked downstairs slowly, but I tripped on the last step when I saw the sight in front of me:
Edward's father, Edward Sr., was putting on his hat and grabbing his briefcase, getting ready to head out the door. When my daddy walked out the front door last time he never came back through it. Just as I found someone to trust again, he couldn't abandon me too.
"No!!!" I cried out. I dashed forward and wrapped my arms around Edward Sr.'s leg and held on tight sobbing into the fabric. I didn't realize until after that it was the first word the Masens had heard me utter.
"Little One, what's wrong?" Mr. Masen asked me as he loosened my arms from around his leg and picked me up. I immediately wrapped my arms around his neck instead. "I have to go to work, Little One." When I still refused to let go, he called out, "Edward."
Edward junior walked down the stairs. "I was just getting my things for school, father." He said, seeming to think he would get into trouble for being upstairs. He saw me then and smiled. "Need a little help?"
"I have to get to work, so would you please look after her?" I could hear the reluctance in Mr. Masen's voice.
Edward Jr. walked over to us and pulled me to him. I stayed limp in his arms as I watched Mr. Masen walk out the door.
"Come on Sarah, let's go…play piano." He had to think about what to do with me.
He played a lot of songs for me, and then finally looked in my direction. "I have to leave for school in a few minutes, will you be okay here? Mary is in the kitchen and my mother went out to arrange for the dressmaker to come later for you. She should be home soon." I nodded and watched as he left the room.
I sat still on the couch for five more minutes, just to make sure Edward didn't come back, and then I moved onto the piano bench.
Daddy had taught me the keys and notes when I was younger, and the rest I had learned from watching daddy play the song he wrote for me when the war broke out. He had left soon after. Canada had entered the war very early on.
We weren't actually part of Canada officially, but I like to think we are. Daddy had been killed along with 90% of the rest of the Newfoundland regiment. At least, I think that was right, I had only heard snatches of the conversation between mama and the soldiers.
I really had to find out where I was. I remember slipping onto a boat. That was a mistake, waves and me were not meant to coexist. After the boat, I had slipped from train to train, until the conductor announced that this was the last stop. I had seen a sign that said 'Now Entering Illinois' a while back. Maybe I was in Ontario…
I hit the middle C note. The piano was perfectly tuned. I jumped off the piano bench and opened it. There was a notebook full of blank music sheets and a pencil on the top of the pile of books and pulled them out.
I sat back down on the bench and placed the book and pencil on the stand. I started by hitting the notes that began the song, then, once I was sure that it was correct, I wrote it down on the page. The whole song took up 10 pages. Daddy had sung the song in G Major, so I left it there, I also left the time signature at 4/4. After I was sure I had the notes all done, I started to add in the words:
Are they calling for, our last dance?
I see it, in your eyes.
In your eyes.
Same old moves, for, a new romance.
I could use, the same old lies, but I'll sing,
Shine on, just shine on!
Close your eyes and they'll all be gone.
They can scream and shout that they've been sold out,
But it paid for the cloud that we're dancing on.
So shine on. Just shine on!
With your smile just as bright as the sun.
'Cause they're all just slaves to the gods they've made
But you and I just shone.
Just shone.
And when silence greets my last goodbye,
The words I need are in your eyes, and I'll sing.
Shine On, just shine on!
Close your eyes and they'll all be gone.
They can scream and shout that they've been sold out,
But it paid for the cloud that we're dancing on.
So shine on. Just shine on!
With your smile just as bright as the sun.
'Cause they're all just slaves to the gods they made,
But you and I, just shone.
Just shone.
So shine on, just shine on!
Close your eyes and they'll all be gone.
They can scream and shout that they've been sold out,
But it paid for the cloud that we're dancing on.
So shine on. Just shine on!
With your smile just as bright as the sun.
'Cause they're all just slaves to the gods they've made
But you and I just shone.
Just shone.
I stared at the completed song in front of me and gently started to play the introduction notes. I sang the first few lines softly, but the song wasn't meant to be that quiet. It was my song, so I started to sing with more volume. Mama may have hated my speaking voice, but she used to make me sing for her a lot because, just like daddy, she thought my singing voice was quite pretty.
At the top of the piece, I wrote the title, Shine On, and slightly lower and off to the right, I wrote:
Composed by Charles Swan
For Isabella Swan
I sang through the song one more time, then I gathered up the pages and left the room. I didn't know Mrs. Masen had been in the hallway listening to my performance.
ELPOV (Elizabeth POV)
I walked through the front hallway on my back from the tailors. Mrs. Sandler, our trusted tailor, was stopping by later in the day to take Bella's measurements.
Holly, Mary's fourteen-year-old help, passed me with a smile on her face. "That little girl Master Edward picked up yesterday is really talented at singing and the piano, Missus Masen."
"What? She won't even speak, how is she singing?"
Holly shrugged, her dark blue eyes dancing. "I don't know, Missus." She shook her head and headed back to the kitchen. I was left staring at the dark brown bun on the back of her head.
I sighed and walked towards the room at the back of the house that was empty except for a couch, and Edward's favourite (we had two) piano.
Holly was right. I could hear Sarah singing inside the room. It was a song that I didn't recognize, but it sounded beautiful. I would have to ask Edward about it. It had to be in one of his books.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't hear when the piano stopped playing, but suddenly the door opened a bit more and Sarah made her way into the hallway. She looked at me with a look of pain in her chocolate brown eyes.
I am so sorry once again for the slow updates.
The song for this chapter is 'Shine On' by 'James Blunt'
Just a quick preview for next chapter:
"Bella? That's your name isn't it." I looked from the little girl with tears streaming down her pale face to the music sheets scattered on the floor.
"Please don't tell them." The child whispered.
"I don't know why you don't want them to know, but I will respect your wishes. To them you will still be Sarah Iris Masen."
I gasped in shock as the child flung her arms around my stomach. Imagine that, me, Mary Jones, the keeper of a secret that had the potential to destroy the girl's future with the Masens. My eyes drifted back to the missing sign with the child's face on it in my hands, and back again to the music sheets on the floor. This girl had a hidden past that I was sure was much darker than any childs' deserved to be.
Please review
-Nobody